MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER DENYING MOTION FOR A
PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

JOHN
R. TUNHEIM CHIEF JUDGE

Plaintiffs
Polyform A.G.P., Inc., Plastiques Cellulaires Polyform, Inc.,
and Nudura, Inc. (collectively, “Polyform”) bring
this patent-infringement action against Defendants Xtreme
Insulation Technologies, LLC, Terra Logic Building Products,
Inc., and Cooper Stewart (collectively,
“Xtreme”). Polyform and Xtreme offer competing
insulated concrete form (“ICF”) products.
Polyform contends that Xtreme's ICF products infringe
Polyform's U.S. Patent No. 6, 792, 729 (“the
‘729 patent”). Polyform moves for a preliminary
injunction, seeking to prevent Xtreme from selling their ICF
products. Because, at this early stage of the case and on a
limited record, the Court cannot find that Polyform is likely
to succeed on the merits and because the threat of
irreparable harm is unclear, the Court will deny
Polyform's motion.

BACKGROUND

The
‘729 patent, titled “Stackable Construction Panel
System, ” describes an improvement to ICF products, or
as stated in the ‘729 patent, “stackable wall
forms . . . having pairs of opposed panels for receiving
flowable materials such as concrete.” (Compl., Ex. A
(“‘729 Patent”) at 1:6-9, Mar. 9, 2017,
Docket No. 1.) Generally, “[o]nce the concrete is
solidified, the assembled wall forms remain in place to
insulate the wall.” (Id. at 1:19-20.) Claim 1
of the ‘729 patent recites:

A wall
form for receiving a flowable material, comprising:

a pair of foam panels each having opposed top and bottom wall
surfaces; and

a connector for tying together said foam panels in spaced and
parallel relationship along a longitudinal direction, said
connector comprising a pair of elongated anchor members each
embedded longitudinally inside a corresponding one of said
foam panels, each of said anchor members having two opposed
extremities and a head piece projecting from each of said
extremities along the longitudinal direction, the head pieces
each having a terminal surface extending transversally and
along a portion of a corresponding one of the top and bottom
wall surfaces of the corresponding foam panel, the connector
further comprising a connecting member for connecting
longitudinally the anchor members of the pair together;

wherein each of the top and bottom wall surfaces of each of
the foam panels is provided with alternating projections and
recesses, the head pieces each being embedded into one of
said projections.

(Id. at 8:40-61.)

Polyform
contends that it has become a “leader[] in the ICF
industry in Canada, Europe, and the United States”; it
has been “instrumental in establishing building codes
in Canada and the United States to enhance the safety and
uniform construction of buildings utilizing ICF
technology”; and it has “invested heavily and
incurred great expense in developing a market for [its]
Nudura ICFs and in developing, training, and maintaining a
network of distributors in Canada, Europe, and throughout the
United States.” (Decl. of Murray Snider (“Snider
Decl.”) ¶¶ 6-7, June 5, 2017, Docket No. 14.)

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